Central Oregon Beekeeping Association

Reply to: Early Honey Harvest?

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<blockquote>Ron Lane wrote:

I'm trying something different this year and just for fun, thought I'd toss out the idea to see what people think.&nbsp; So don't be afraid&nbsp;to jump in with your thoughts.&nbsp; Hopefully we can all gain some insight from a discussion.&nbsp;

Each year I have a few&nbsp;huge colonies that are amazing to see and produce lots of honey, but they are also the most difficult to successfully winter because they produce tons of mites as well.&nbsp; Right now I have&nbsp;six colonies that have five boxes on them.&nbsp;&nbsp;One deep and four mediums.&nbsp;&nbsp;I don't use queen excluders so over the spring I have pulled the&nbsp;fresh new comb/honey up to the&nbsp;top box.&nbsp; (no, not all these boxes were added at once)&nbsp; The fourth box is about half full of honey and brood and the first, second and third boxes are full of bees.&nbsp; Imagine, a deep and two and a half mediums full of bees!!&nbsp; That's pretty cool in itself!&nbsp; I know from past experience, at the sites where these colonies are located, that a significant amount of backfilling will take place between now and the end of July - mostly clover nectar.&nbsp; All that to say I don't have worries about having enough stores put away if I remove the top box of honey.

Seems logical&nbsp;that I could remove honey&nbsp;in the top box soon and begin some early mite treatments.&nbsp; (I've done counts and&nbsp;these hives&nbsp;run&nbsp;anywhere from 3 percent to 6 percent.)&nbsp; Hopefully this would make it easier to get a handle on mites in August.&nbsp;

I welcome thoughts and ideas.&nbsp;

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